Judge denies motion to dismiss charge

By Peter Jasinski, pjasinski@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
01/11/2017 01:08:53 PM EST

Salah Barhoum stood with his attorney Michael Dlott during a pre-trial hearing in Fitchburg District Court on Tuesday. Barhoum was seeking to have a charge of indecent assault and battery dismissed alleging that the Fitchburg State University Police destroyed a videotape of contact between him and victim before and after the alleged incident. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE/PETER JASINSKI

Sentinel and Enterprise staff photos can be ordered by visiting our SmugMug site.

FITCHBURG -- The Fitchburg State University student who was wrongfully identified as a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing will stand trial in February on an indecent assault and battery charge after a district court judge denied a motion to dismiss the case.

Salaheddin Barhoum, 20, of Revere was arraigned in March on a charge of assault and battery on a person 14 or over after a woman he met online alleged he sexually assaulted her while visiting Fitchburg State University in November 2015.

Barhoum's attorney, Michael Dlott, had filed for a motion to dismiss the case in August, claiming evidence in the case had been destroyed.

District Judge Christopher Loconto denied the motion on Tuesday to dismiss the charge.

"We are disappointed that the judge found that all the elements for dismissal were met and decided to oppose lesser sanctions. It will go to trial and I'm certain justice will be done," Dlott said, adding that he might consider an appeal in the future.

"Were it to go further and it wasn't in our favor, I think there may be an appeal, but we're not planning on doing that at this point," he said.

Barhoum's trial has been set for Feb. 2 in Fitchburg District Court.

Prior to their most recent appearance in court Tuesday, Dlott had argued that the case needed to be dismissed and alleged exculpatory evidence of a video recording of Barhoum and the woman immediately before and after the alleged assault was "negligently or intentionally" erased by a Fitchburg State University Police Department officer, according to court documents.

Advertisement

There is a written description of the video images captured as Barhoum and the woman entered and left the FSU dorm where he lived at the time. An FSU official reported in May that Barhoum was no longer enrolled at the university after it conducted an investigation into the incident, though Barhoum indicated in court Tuesday that he was trying to get back into school.

In the written description of the video recording, according to court documents, an FSU officer wrote that at about 10 p.m. Nov. 11, Barhoum and the woman are seen walking together into Russels Towers, a student dormitory.

About two hours later, Barhoum and the woman are seen walking from the dorm toward a vehicle, according to court documents.

"Based on the video there appears to be four times that they make body contact, consistent with hugging and/or kissing," the FSU police officer wrote in the written description of the video, according to court documents.

The description of the footage also described the two sitting in a car for roughly two minutes when five people approached the car, at which point the two exited the car and, while standing with the group, engaged in body contact consistent with hugging and/or kissing.

When the woman was interviewed by FSU police, she acknowledged the two had hugged, but "she didn't water her friends to ask any questions, so she went along with the huge, to make is appear everything was okay," according to court documents.

In his motion to dismiss the charge, Dlott had said the main defense of the case would be consent.

According to a Fitchburg State Police narrative of the incident, the assault occurred when the victim, a Franklin Pierce University student, and Barhoum went to his dorm room because he wanted to retrieve a jacket when the alleged assault occurred.

Fitchburg State police officials were told about the alleged assault Nov. 16 after being contacted by Franklin Pierce University's director of public safety, according to a police report.

It wasn't until Jan. 29, 79 days later, that an FSU police officer filed an application for criminal charges against Barhoum. According to court documents, the state reported on Aug. 18 that the security tape had already been destroyed prior to the criminal case being issued.

On April 18, 2013, Barhoum and another man were identified on the front page of the New York Post as suspects who were being sought by the FBI for questioning in the Boston Marathon bombing. Barhoum turned himself if to police the same day the Post story ran his photo and was released 20 minutes later.

Barhoum and the other man eventually settled a defamation suit filed against the Post. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Follow Peter Jasinski on Twitter and Tout @PeterJasinski53

Editor's Note: This article has been amended to change that Barhoum and the victim went to his dorm room to retrieve a jacket.

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sentinel and Enterprise. So keep it civil.